The Movie Theater is still open and showing with many screens, I love Courtland Center Mall. New Mall owners are fixing up the Mall too.

5/26/2011 - Clint

Burton's NCG Courtland Cinemas pushing back against trend of Genesee County theater closures Published: Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 7:30 PM Updated: Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 9:33 PM By Roberto Acosta Flint Journal The Flint Journal BURTON, Michigan — The smell of popcorn and sights and sounds of Hollywood epics are returning to Courtland Center tonight, more than two years after the mall movie theater closed its doors. The new owners of the six-screen theater, now named NCG Courtland Cinemas, are bucking a local trend, which has seen five movie theaters and a drive-in close in Genesee County within the past five years. “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” the fourth installment in the blockbuster “Pirates” series, will be the first movie shown at the theater — at 12:05 a. m. Friday, said Pat O’Boyle, promotions and marketing manager for NCG Cinemas, the Owosso-based new owner of the theater.

Ticket sales began online Wednesday afternoon at the NCG website, and the box office at the mall will be open most of the day today for advance sales. Mark Henning, NCG chief operating officer, said the theater has six screens, digital sound and projectors, as well as stadium seating for about 1,200 people. The theater, which closed in 2009, was the “right size” and didn’t require much renovation, Henning said. The company finalized the deal May 13.

Some equipment was repurposed from its Clio NCG theater, which closed in March. “Pretty much it was just cleaning, painting the building, some new signage by the office,” Henning said. The company owns 13 theaters nationwide, including locations in Michigan, Indiana, Tennessee and Georgia, he said. NCG’s Courtland Center facility will employ around 35 full- and part-time employees, some of whom have come from the theater group’s Lapeer, Owosso and former Clio location to help set up for opening night.

Burton City Council President Steve Heffner said officials from NCG and Courtland Center have been working on the reopening of the theater for a couple of months and called the move a positive sign for the area. Despite Genesee County’s decline in movie theaters, the industry has been booming on a nationwide level. Box office figures of $10. 6 billion collected among 5,942 theater locations in the United States and Canada in 2009 were both record highs, according to statistics from the National Association of Theater Owners.

But in Genesee County, Burton’s Showcase Cinemas East and Cinema 10 in Flint Township closed in 2007, Fenton Cinemas and Burton’s Miracle Twin Drive-in followed suit in 2008 and the Clio theater closed in March of this year. Success “depends on a number of factors,” said Bob Sloan, president and national delegate for the Michigan chapter of the National Association of Theater Owners. “It’s the territory, the density, the population and the amount of competition nearby,” Sloan said. NCG’s owners are optimistic that the new theater will be well-received despite home theater options and the increased popularity of streaming video services, Henning said.

“When it was Beta(max), VCRs came out, then DVD. I still think it comes down to people want to get out,” he said. “I really think even as technology gets better and better at home, people still want to get out of the house. ”.